City Keeseville, New York Branding 104.3 Kiss FM First air date March 15, 1992 | Broadcast area Champlain Valley Frequency 104.3 MHz | |
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Slogan The Champlain Valley's Classic Hip-Hop Station | ||
WJKS (104.3 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station in the Champlain Valley of northern New England in the United States. WJKS broadcasts a Classic hip-hop radio format.
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In 2008, the station was granted a U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) construction permit to change its city of license from Hartford, Vermont to Keeseville, New York, increasing its effective radiated power (ERP) to 25,000 watts and decreasing its tower's height above average terrain (HAAT) to 88 meters/289 feet, using a directional antenna located in Au Sable, New York. Even though WJKS is licensed to a community in New York State, its web address is "KissVermont.com". WJKS serves the Burlington-Plattsburgh media market.
History
Before it went on the air, the station first took the call sign WVFA on May 3, 1991 and changed to WGLV on June 14, 1991. It officially launched on March 15, 1992 with a Religious format in Hartford, Vermont. On October 11, 2000, the station launched its WWOD call letters and changed its format to Oldies as "Oldies 104.3". On May 22, 2012, WWOD, along with 28 other Nassau Broadcasting stations in Northern New England, was purchased at bankruptcy auction by Carlisle Capital Corporation, a company controlled by Bill Binnie (owner of WBIN-TV in Derry). WWOD and 11 of the other stations, were then acquire by Vertical Capital Partners, controlled by Jeff Shapiro. As this would put Shapiro over the Federal Communications Commission's ownership limits in the Lebanon-Rutland-White River Junction market, WWOD and WEXP were acquired by Electromagnetic Company, a company controlled by William and Gail Goddard. This transaction was consummated on November 30, 2012, with the WWOD/WEXP portion of the purchase valued at $600,000.
On November 30, 2012, WWOD went silent and swapped call signs with WMXR Woodstock, Vt. On July 9, 2013, the call letters were again changed, to WMVY. WMVY returned to the air on October 30, 2013, still operating from the Hartford facility. The call letters became WECM on June 9, 2014.
On November 10, 2014, WECM began transmitting from its new Keeseville facilities stunting with Christmas music, branded as "Ho Ho 104". After the holiday season, the station continued to run the stunt.
Electromagnetic Company sold WECM to Jeffrey D. Shapiro's Great Eastern Radio, LLC in a transaction that was consummated on March 23, 2015. Electromagnetic received a 6.4% equity interest in Great Eastern Radio (valued at $250,000) in exchange.
On June 15, 2015 at Noon, after seven months of stunting, the station finally flipped to classic hip hop as "Kiss 104.3", with the new call sign WJKS.
On-air staff
Oldies 104.3 used to broadcast oldies music with the following "Oldies Jox":
Former staff
Featured programs
Oldies 104.3 used to broadcast oldies and the following programs: